WEBVTT - Thinking Sideways: Coral Castle 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:16.960 Thinking sideways. I don't under stories of things we simply 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:21.919 don't know the answer too. Well, Hi there everybody, and 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:25.360 thanks for joining us. This is Thinking Sideways once again, 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:30.360 and I'm Steve, as always, joined by Devin and Joe. 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.000 And as Joe likes to say, we have another hard 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:37.120 hitting Mysteries assault. Absolutely no, no, no, no, the mystery 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:39.760 isn't hard hitting. Our our attack on our episode is 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.360 hard hitting. Is well, I've never quite understood how you 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:44.880 went about that, the whole hard hitting thing. Yeah, it's 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:47.360 just it's just a cliche. You don't really want to 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:49.800 like delve into the brain of Joe, do you know? 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:54.880 Not really? No? No, Well, let's let's talk about today's Okay, 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:57.240 we'll take the hard hitting part off of there. We're 0:00:57.280 --> 0:00:59.960 going to talk about a place called Coral Castle, which 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:02.640 some people may have heard of. It's an awesome alliteration. 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:07.400 What's that, the Coral Castle? The coral Castle, even though 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:13.200 it's actually made of limestone, no spoilers. Uh. Well, the 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:16.160 thing about Coral Castle is we know who made it, 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.240 and we know when it was made, but we don't 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:22.679 quite know how it was made, which is kind of 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:26.080 where all of the questions come from, But we should 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:28.800 probably start with who made it, because we do know 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:32.679 that with an unpronounceable name, I actually I can pronounce 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:36.800 it because the video on YouTube his name is Edward 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:44.160 leads Scalon, scaldon Ye Gallion. It sounds like a pirate 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:47.319 name kind of when you say it that way. I'm 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:48.920 just gonna call him ed or Edward from now on 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:56.240 because it's much easier. Ed was born in years before me. Yes, 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:03.720 in Latvia is not exactly, it's just one of the 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:07.000 Baltic states. It's it's so it's really close to the 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:15.799 Baltic anomaly. That's right. Oh No, Edward Edward left his 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:20.239 native country of Latvia. He had a pretty bad reason 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:24.200 for leaving. He was engaged, and he was engaged to 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:27.639 a girl who, according to legends, they always say her 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:33.760 name is Agnes Scoffs or Agnes vast Yeah, Scoffs is 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:37.200 There's a lot of contention around that, right, because it's 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:39.720 not even a Latvian It's not even a properly format 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:43.200 and Latvian word. It's phonetically written, is what I can 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.480 I gather from reading her actual name. That was my 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:49.080 take on it too, But you'll see that around the Internet, 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.880 people saying, no, it's not even legit. Yeah, I think 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:56.960 Scoffs is not. It was maybe better. But but here's 0:02:57.040 --> 0:02:59.800 here's the even better part about her name is, according 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:01.560 to some of the research that I found, that's not 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:04.480 her name. Joe, you're gonna have to help me with 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:09.959 how to pronounce this. Is this her money, Louis, do 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:12.359 you know how to say that? With the no? I 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:14.639 don't know what that little means in Latin. It's not 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.679 even it's a it's a double dot. I don't know 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:23.639 what it is, but it's the thing is Agnes. He 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:26.480 was He was engaged to Agnes, regardless of how you 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:31.240 say your name, and he called her his sweet sixteen 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:36.920 because she was sixteen and he was ten years older 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.040 than her, because in that day and age, an older 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:44.320 man always married the younger girl. So he he was 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:49.200 six and he reportedly what had happened is the day 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:53.080 before their wedding she called it off. He was heartbroke, 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:57.640 and he left and he moved to the continental United States. 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.560 So he worked. I've seen record that he worked in 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:03.720 Canada and that he worked in Texas and a couple 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:07.120 of different places. Emmanual labor Yeah, he was. He was 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:11.520 actually a logger in Canada, which may explained how he 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.160 got some extratise in moving a heavy objects. Yeah, he was. 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:18.000 He was did a lot of stuff back in those days. 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:19.560 There was still a lot of old growth around, so 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:25.520 those trees were before out of it. Actually exactly when 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.040 we were logging it all out. Yeah, pretty much was. 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:32.760 She called the wedding off. It was, and he moved 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:36.760 to the US and was working for about six years 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:41.360 until nineteen nineteen when he got a little bit of tuberculosis, 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:45.599 just a small case, just a smidge of tuberculosis. Yeah, 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:47.800 even a smidge is not such a good thing. It's 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.080 grandfather got that they were actually going to um they 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:53.680 were going to quarantine him. They were gonna like lock 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.400 him up in a in a tuberculosis hospital. So he 0:04:57.520 --> 0:04:59.719 lived in Los Angeles at the time, and my grandmother 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:03.920 did so basically, uh, they bought a small house out 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:06.760 east in the desert of Los Angeles and this little 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:09.880 town called Hesperia, and they and he had to promise 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:11.760 to just stay in the house and not go out. 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:15.840 I remember you talking about basically and her self house arrest. 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:17.400 But he figured it was better than being stuck in 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:20.720 an asylum. Yeah, that's true. It's still quarantine. Don't they 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:24.960 still quarantine people with Yeah, because it's very it's easy 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:30.120 to contract Ed moved to Florida because the doctors told 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:33.359 him that the weather there would be better for his condition. 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:37.360 So short of they didn't even threaten to quarantine, and 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:40.520 they were just like, hey, moved to this place. Yeah. Interesting, 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:42.960 you could go to somewhere where we're not don't talk 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:45.600 to anybody, and smoke a lot of cigarette. You know 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:48.920 that actually used to treat tuberculosis. What Yeah, Yeah, that's 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:50.760 what we've talked about. That one and the most the 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:54.960 most the most favored one was the cool refreshing taste 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:59.719 of Lucky strikes on filters y. Yeah. Well Ed says 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:03.279 that he cured his tuberculosis through the aid of magnets. 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.280 So he didn't evidently have that bat of a case 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:10.039 of tuberculosis, but he did have it. But we're going 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:12.160 to start hearing about magnets more and more as we 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:16.960 talked about him. But he said he cured himself using magnetism. 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:21.200 I had to say if he really did that and 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:23.560 he didn't share share that technique with the rest of 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.520 the world, and it's rather selfish of him, you know. 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:31.760 I feel like he tried to share it. As we 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:35.040 get further, we'll learn more about him. He tried to 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:37.279 share some of his information and people were like, wow, 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:43.280 you're crazy people. He did some pamphlets and he did well. 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.440 When when Edward got to Florida, he bought a piece 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:50.520 of property in Florida City, which is on a very 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.120 very southern tip of Florida. It's really far south. It's 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:59.480 like south of Miami, and Miami's pretty dang south is 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.640 to the south. I believe, if I remember right at 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.200 the time that he bought it, it was the southernmost 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:09.600 city in the continental US that he moved. It was 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:11.960 one of the last cities before you got to the Keys. 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:14.000 And I don't know if that's still the case, but 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.240 that was the case at the time that I read. Yeah, 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:19.280 I don't know, but he he went down there, he 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:23.240 bought he bought a piece of ground, and then what 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.720 he started to do was he started to build a 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:30.720 monument to his ex fiance as a way to impress her. 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:35.880 According to what he said is that he loved her 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:38.720 still and that he was pining for her. Look at 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.240 all these things I've done for you. I wonder if 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:43.880 he was busy constructing a castle back in Latvia, and 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:45.440 she just sort of took a look at that and said, 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:49.200 you know what, I think I'm breaking off. Maybe that 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.440 was the reason it might be. But the thing is 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.679 she she never saw as we're as we're gonna talk about. 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:58.400 He worked on this for thirty years and she never 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:08.000 came and saw what he built in her honor. So 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:11.360 what what what ed did is he began to build 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:16.000 monolithic structures. He would carve out stones, these giant ton 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:19.800 or multiple ton weighed stones, and he would erect him 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:24.600 on his property. Well, at one point he decided that 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:29.120 he didn't like Florida City, and according to the legends, 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.439 it's because they were planning a subdivision near him and 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:35.400 he was weirded out by having other people near him. 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:38.199 So instead he decided he moved to Homestead, Florida, which 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.640 he's a very private and homesteads about ten miles away. 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:45.520 He bought a chunk of ground there and over the 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:49.480 course of three years, every huge piece of stone that 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.840 he'd put in place, he moved to this new location, 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:56.880 which is a lot of work. Like nobody, nobody saw 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.679 him working on his stuff. Nobody saw him loading the 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:01.360 trail either, because what he was doing was putting it 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:03.800 onto a trailer and then having a friend hauled by 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:08.400 tractor the ten miles down the road to his new place. Obviously, 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.079 moving all that stuff a lot of work. Did I 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:15.480 mention his bill little? No, I haven't. Ed was five 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.120 foot tall and wait about a hundred pounds. Yeah, he 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:20.240 was smaller than I am. He was smaller than you are. 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:24.319 He was an itty bitty guy, and he was building 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:27.400 these giant stone structures. And then at one point he 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.520 moves him all to this new place, and very fortunately 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:32.280 for him, he didn't like lose control of any of 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:34.880 these monoliths and had them squash him. No, he never 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.400 did get squashed that we know of. That's not how 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:40.280 he died. Even No, it's not how he died. He 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.360 would have died if one of these things had fallen 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:45.240 on Yeah. Oh yeah. He love some big rocks, he 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:48.280 really did. And I think we we mentioned this just 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:53.280 just briefly, is that no one ever saw Edward working 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:59.040 on any of these monoliths. Okay, that's not legend. No 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:01.640 one saw him working on it. He was he would 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:04.680 work on things at night, and according to the legends, 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.280 if someone was watching him, even if he didn't see them, 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.600 he would just stop working until they left, and then 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:13.640 he would start working again, which is part of the 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:19.079 air of mystery about how how did he know well, 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.760 you know ed worked. He owned his property, and he 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:27.719 worked on it, and he worked on it until nine So, 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:30.040 like I said, it's about thirty years he's been doing 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:32.360 all this work, and he's been erecting all of these 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:35.079 monoliths and doing all this carving, and by the way, 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.839 conducting guided tours of the place for anybody that wanted 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:41.160 to come by and ring the doorbell. That was pretty 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:43.880 And this guy would come down from his little towers 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:46.160 did ring the bell twice. Yeah, he had had a 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:49.800 residence in his castle tower. He built a castle tower 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:51.800 for himself. Pay him a dime and he'd come down 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.719 and give you a tour. And and he wrote he 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:59.000 didn't have a formal education, but he believed that he 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.319 had figured out a lot of science, and he didn't 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.480 believe that modern science was right about a lot of things, 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:09.760 including magnetism. He really was believed he'd figured out electricity 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:13.960 and magnetism. And he wrote all these pamphlets and handouts, 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:16.360 and so he was selling those two people who would 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:18.199 come and visit the site as well, Oh you want 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:19.760 to die, Hi, come on in, you want one of these. 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:21.719 It's I don't know, a penny or or whatever he 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:24.319 was charging for him. People would buy him. So he 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.240 was making a decent living on it. I would say 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:29.920 he was making more than a Yeah, he he obviously 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:32.679 didn't was not hurting for money. Good for him to. 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:35.800 Is there to be rewarded for all that hard labor. Indeed, 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:39.319 and he was a tough old bird. He was sixty 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:42.400 four when he died. Being a tough old guy. What 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:44.439 did he do? He didn't feel good. One day, he 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:47.040 got up, He put a sign on the door that 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:50.360 said going to hospital. He walked to the bustop, he 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:52.440 got on the bus, and he went to the doctor 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:56.199 in Miami. In Miami, which is which was like a 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:59.319 three two or three hour bus ride, several hours on 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:03.280 a bus. We don't know when, but at some point, 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:05.760 either before he left home, or while he was on 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:07.160 the bus, or while he was at the hospital, he 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:08.960 had a stroke. Yeah. I thought it was on the bus. 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:11.240 But yeah, and again, this is one of those things 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:16.480 you can't I keep seeing different places? And somehow during 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:18.240 all of this, when he was sick, he got a 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:21.760 kidney infection, and the kidney infection is what killed him. 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:26.760 But according to accounts, some say three days, some say 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:29.320 it took up to twenty eight days for him to die. 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.599 But the guy, Yeah, but didn't they have antibiotics in 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:38.000 those days. I don't know if they didn't diagnose it 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:42.120 ride or what the deal was, but that's what killed him, 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:44.360 was the infection of the kidney. Maybe it did irreversible 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.679 damage before they caught it. And it's again one of 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:49.959 those things that records are not really easy to get to, 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:53.520 so I don't know exactly what it was. But we've 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:59.440 talked about Yeah, yeah, so Ed died. We should probably 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:03.599 no talk about Coral Castle, the actual site. Yeah you 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:06.320 guys want to go there? Yeah? Okay, well why don't 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:08.520 we whyn't We have the time machine and we'll go 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:16.520 back to and check this place out, all right, the 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:19.360 way back machine. Okay, Actually, let's go back a little further. 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:22.480 Let's go back to like right when he started it. 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:24.959 You don't want to wait, you want to go back, 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:29.680 but I do want to. Can we stop for snacks. Uh, well, yeah, 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:31.959 we can stop for snacks, but only if you promised 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:34.320 not to drop any food this time. Yeah. I found 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:36.280 a mommified French fry the other day that I know. 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:38.640 It was from our trip to ancient England. You remember 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.240 that the two princes in the tower. So you found 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:48.679 a chip? Hey, who got the cheese? Sorry? Why did 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:51.079 we not building windows? And this thing? I need to 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:59.760 crack one. Okay, here we are, we're at We're in 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:05.520 or yea castle in the forties. Yeah, okay, so first 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:09.800 black and white. The first thing to look around. I 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:11.560 mean you're gonna see this place is not that big. 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:16.400 It's about two hundred yards by two hundred yards, so 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:18.880 it's it's not a big estate or a big chunk 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.520 of ground that we've that we're standing on two yards 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:26.760 compared to something yeahs is twice at length the football field. 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:30.640 We know that doesn't work for it, actually time does it? Okay, 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:33.360 So it's not a big place, but you're canna see 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:36.400 there's there's all these giant stones that are erected. I 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:39.920 mean we're seeing here that we've got. It's all limestone, 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:43.880 by the way, which is kind of crazy, and it's 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:47.560 made of the limestone. It's it's what they call light. 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:50.680 I believe it's how you pronounce it is like a 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.880 creamy buttery spread that you put on your rolls. No, 0:14:54.160 --> 0:15:02.320 not this time, is that as I think it's it's two. Oh, 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:06.120 so I'm gonna say, oh light, light is made out 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:10.640 of fossilized shell and coral, right right, So I think 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:12.480 that's why it's called coral. Right now, it's it's it's 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:17.400 like it's limestone that has some fossilized shells and corals mostly, 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:21.280 but it's mostly actually okay, so it's basically limestone. Yeah, 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:25.800 thanks for crushing my dreams. But no, I mean as 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:28.360 as we're looking around, like I said, these things are 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.920 really big, and you know, we're looking at these stones. 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:36.560 The walls, they're about three foot thick, they're eight foot 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:39.960 high and each sections about seven foot across. So these 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:44.080 are big slabs of stones. Ed was quarrying right here 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:46.720 on the site. And there's no seams. I mean, there's 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:50.320 you can't see the right seems. Yeah, everything bordering or 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:54.000 anything like that. It's it's very tight. We've got over here, 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:57.320 we've got some rocking chairs, giant stone rocking chairs, which 0:15:57.320 --> 0:15:59.080 actually rock. I want to sit in one of those, 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:03.120 can't I let it? Awesome, don't break it. What's crazy 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.640 about these rocking chairs is they are so well done 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.920 that they actually rock, so their center of gravity works. 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:12.920 It's not like a big, heavy thing that just sits, 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.800 which is pretty amazing when you think one guy carved 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.000 this all by hand. It was actually it appears that 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:20.720 he was a pretty competent designer. He didn't I mean 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:22.520 the door or the door for example. We'll get to 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:24.760 that now. With the door, it was an amazing piece 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:26.760 of work. Well, let's talk about the door. The door 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:30.440 is about six and a half seven foot tall and 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:35.200 it's just a rotating door. It rotates on its center axis. Now, 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:38.080 the really interesting thing is that. Okay, so he had 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:42.280 to put this thing in place. The awesome thing is that, 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:45.520 according to the legends, it was so well balanced that 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:49.120 a child could open it with a push of a finger. Okay, 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:51.800 well it was really well balanced. But nobody knew how 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.600 he did it. It wasn't until about I think about 0:16:55.640 --> 0:17:00.320 twenty years or so ago. It was the eight right, 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:02.840 the doors stopped working. Yeah, so they had to like 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.280 fix it. They had to fix that. When they figured 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:06.960 out how he did it. They had to bring in 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:10.840 a crane like several ton crane that you could pick 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.040 up several tons at a time. And what they figured 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:15.720 out is he had an axle with a giant truck 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.080 bearing in the center of it, and that's how the 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:20.639 whole thing rotated. Yeah, and then the bearing had rusted 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.520 out over the years. When they fixed it, it didn't 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.720 work as well. And then it broke again years later, 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:29.840 and they fixed it again and it works even worse. Yeah, 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:32.720 it broke again not that long after. Considering that that 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.560 it lasted so long after he put it in place, 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:38.399 by the serious millions, Well it's you know, more proof 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:40.159 that they just don't make them like they used to 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.440 know they Yeah, so anyway, but yeah, and my hat's 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:46.560 off to the guy. Yeah, he was kind of whacko, 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:48.879 but well he did crazy things. I mean, he did 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:53.040 these these giants, stone circles and globes that are supposed 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:56.680 to be the planets. He's got phases of the moon 0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:59.680 with a moon pool with a star coat carved in 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:03.119 the middle all of the pool. Uh, there's tables and 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:06.320 chairs that have shrubs growing in the middle of the table. 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.520 It's it's all it's it's on a giant scale, but 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:14.000 it's a little weird. There's some pretty freaking cool you know, 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:18.159 it's actually aligned with the stars, right Abel, that's aligned 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:22.480 with the north star over there. Yeah, that one. And 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:24.440 you'll see there's a little wires going through the center. 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:26.240 There used to be wires going through the center of 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:27.800 the whole, and that's how you could well, there are 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:32.440 right now because we're in nineteen right, I forgot, Well, 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:34.239 there's wires in the middle of it, and that's how 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:36.240 you could tell you could catch the north Star to 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:41.120 know that you were aligned correctly. Just really really crazy, 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:44.840 because it is amazing. That's the door is still working. 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:46.480 I'm gonna go see if I can actually push it 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:50.000 up with one finger. It takes a little more than 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:54.760 one thing. There's a pretty heavy check rock. You're not 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.040 a child. Maybe a child could do it. Yeah. Center, 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:00.240 it's the center of gravity. You know, you're center at 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:04.119 he's too high. That's why all right, Well, now, the 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:06.240 great thing about the construction, by the way, I know 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:08.359 we haven't said it yet, or we alluded to it 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:11.399 a little bit, actually, is that Ed had built a tower, 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.520 a tower for himself. It's only two stories high. But 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:16.280 he built that on the property and he lived in 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:18.480 the second floor. Because we talked about ringing the bell 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:20.960 twice to get him to come down. That's where he lived. 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.800 And as Devon was saying earlier, everything is so well 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:28.800 made that the seams don't allow light through. So he 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:32.680 carved everything so smooth and aligned it so well that 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:35.400 you just you don't get a breeze through it. Basically, 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:38.920 I heard, by the way, a little digression here that 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.600 I heard that his family back in Latvia were actually stonemasons. 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:45.280 I did hear that he actually worked as a mason himself. 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:47.480 I I did see the accounting of that, so I 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:50.680 think that's probably where he learned the trade. But he 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:53.920 obviously he perfected it when he was in Florida, and 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:56.800 it seems like he's it was just a bit of 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.399 an obsessive, compulsive kind of guy. He might have been 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:01.720 actually building my own castle. I don't think I would 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:03.600 have to like you, I have every scene be perfect. 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:08.400 You know, I can't even build a snow castle and quit, 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:11.760 so I I you've got to be just really focused. 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:13.920 I think if you're building a place that you're living, 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:18.440 you're going to be a little more. You know, I 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:21.040 think you if you're if you're building a place that 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:23.280 you're going to live in, especially like in the winter, 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:25.640 even though it is Florida. I have been in Florida 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.840 in the winter. It's not cold like we would say cold, 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:31.879 but you don't want to be sleeping outside. Um, so 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:34.240 I think you would do all you could to try 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:38.280 and make the seals. But for it to for that 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:41.639 to continue out throughout the entire campus of the Coral 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:43.879 Castle is interesting to me. You know. It's one thing 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:46.200 to say his room was really well sealed. Well, of 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:48.040 course his room is really well sealed, because like, who 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:53.000 wants scorpions and cons that you didn't, you know, whatever, 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:56.320 But to say also the walls were perfectly sealed those 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:58.120 that was a big wall, you know, So I think 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:00.920 for me that's where that comes in A yeah, And 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:03.919 also should be should be noted that this the construction 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:08.200 is rock solid because even Hurricane Andrew, it was like 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:11.760 it was like an almost direct hit of the hurricane 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:14.880 and nothing moving. Nothing. And again these are several tons 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:18.120 of stones but obviously well laid, and he built it all. 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:22.080 It's a it's a style of masonry r stone masonry 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:26.200 it's called Cyclopean masonry, and that's where you don't actually 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:28.600 use any mortars. So most of us know, you know, 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:30.960 you have a brick house and it's got mortar between 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:35.040 all the stones. This has no mortar, there's no nothing. 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:38.720 It's literally just the weight of the stones so well 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:42.359 fitted together that it holds it all together. This is 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:44.840 what some of the ancient walls that you see that 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:48.080 are historical, we're built using that style. Starting to get 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:53.600 into my ancient Aliens. And in Peru, the Incas had 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:55.040 that same sort of thing. You don't see any of 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:58.920 it and mortar at all, but they were perfectly square. Yep. 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:02.719 It's well, there were some that were that weren't exactly square, 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:06.040 but they still they fit together. So yeah. Well, here's 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:11.440 one other odd thing um that about it is ed 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:15.120 didn't actually call this place Coral Castle. He called it Blackgate. 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:21.440 It wasn't until after he died the property sold. Somebody 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:24.560 in the family inherited it, and I think that I 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:27.520 lived in Michigan, and he didn't want it, and so 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:29.840 we sold it somebody else, who it sounds like, didn't 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:32.360 even realize that this stuff was on the property when 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:35.159 they bought it. And then they realized it could be 0:22:35.160 --> 0:22:37.680 a tourist attraction, and then they changed the name to 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:41.560 Coral Castle. It's actually on the Registry of Historic Places, 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:44.280 but it's under the original name of Blackgate Park. I 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:48.679 thought it was changed in two thousand eleven. The registry portion, uh, 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:51.320